Densho Digital Archive - Arthur Nishimoto Interview (denshovh-narthur-01-0025)

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AL: Did you... I mean, I would imagine coming back, you were probably a different, you had seen so much and lived so much in those two years, would you say that you were the same man coming home? How was your life, how had you changed as a person if you hadn't gone to war, if you'd just stayed in Hawaii?

AN: I guess I, I guess I matured during the war. Yes, and I began to appreciate what life is. But the only thing I feared was, was I, did I have a shell-shock, and was I still in war? Because I've heard some of my friends, when we came back it was December, and for New Year's there was firecrackers. And when they heard that, they hit the ground, even downtown, it was kind of embarrassing. And I heard that people were doing that, some of the boys. I thought, I hope I'm not that way, but I was, a little bit. Because one day I was out hanging my laundry out there, on the clothesline, and my neighbor fired some firecracker. And instantly, without knowing it, I threw the basket and hit the ground in my backyard. I thought to myself, oh look, I felt sheepish and embarrassed, but no one saw that. And so I thought, well, yeah, I do have that instinct in my mind yet, I got to get rid of it. I wasn't crazy, it's just an instinct, it comes natural. And so that was the only time I did that. After that, I heard firecrackers going off, I didn't move, I was okay. It's just the first time without warning I heard that, bang-bang-bang, I just threw my laundry, basket of laundry, and I hit the ground of my yard. I looked around to see if anyone was watching. So I guess we come that way, every day and day out, subconsciously, we do that. We outgrew it, but some people didn't. Now, today's war, it's the most saddest thing to find out that nearly every day, yesterday, the news said, nearly every day, one soldier's committing suicide. Let me tell you, now that's bad. Something is wrong there.

AL: What is the difference? Why do you think it's happening now?

AN: I don't know. I really don't know if it's more than... the youngsters today are different than when we were youngsters. They're different. I don't know what it is, I can't put my finger on it. I think it was, here they were, they're soldiers, they've been trained, and why do they do that? Is the war that much different? Yes, I can see the war is different than when we fought. And so I don't know. I don't know if this new generation... I think their upbringing is different than when we were, yeah.

AL: Were you aware of any guys from the 442nd and the 100th who committed suicide after returning?

AN: No. I'm trying to think... no, I haven't heard of anyone committing suicide. They may have, but I haven't heard.

AL: Did you guys keep in touch, like your unit? When did you start having reunions and getting together?

AN: Oh, yeah. Well, for me, it was over twenty years before I got together for reunion, but I was in the military, I wasn't around. So after nearly twenty-seven years of service, then I came back, and then they told me that we have a reunion. So I joined them really late, just in the past ten, fifteen years is when I joined them.